Community

Individuals, families and organizations are being asked to sign up to provide a delivered dinner that will go to the hospital for the family of Irvington Police Officer Osso.

Meals must be delivered between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. each night to the Irvington Police Department. The Police Department will than deliver the meal to the hospital.

Each dinner should include a full meal and may also include a dessert and be able to feed up to 10 people. The meals can be homemade or store bought. On most nights the dinner will be feeding 7 to 10 people. Please order accordingly.

Please do not deliver a meal without being signed up. Foods to consider include pasta, chicken, beef, potatoes, vegetables, cakes and cookies. Also any type of beverage.  more »

In a time of stringent budgets, collecting a few more cents here and there apparently makes sense for Tarrytown and that includes increasing the cost of downtown parking.

One hour of parking at a village meter has risen to 75 cents, which means that each quarter plunked into a meter will get you five minutes less than it did prior to July 7. Tarrytown officials estimate that small change will add some $70,000 annually to the municipal coffers, according to Village Administrator Michael Blau.  more »

The fate of a Tarrytown coffee house’s dogged efforts to legally allow patrons to frequent its establishment with man’s best four-legged friend is now in the hands of the acting commissioner of the Westchester County Health Department.

Coffee Labs Roasters, which was partially named after owner Michael Love’s pets and has been allowing dogs inside since it first opened on Main Street in 2003, has requested a waiver or a variance from a provision of the New York State Sanitary Code that prohibits live animals from food service operations.  more »

The Village of Tarrytown and Irvington Middle School were among the Earth Day award winners recognized by Westchester County at its 2009 celebration at Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla.

Tarrytown was honored by the county for having the largest increase in recycling in 2008. Curbside collection of recyclables increased by 40% in 2008 and, coupled with an increase in organic waste recycled, the village increased its overall municipal recycling rate from 28% in 2007 to 50% in 2008.

Meanwhile, Irvington Middle School was singled out for collecting the highest number of plastic bags, more than 30,000, of any Westchester school as part of the county’s Millionth Plastic Bag event last year.  more »

Casting a ballot in Westchester County is catching up with the electronic age.

County Residents going to the polls beginning with the primary elections, September 14th, and the November general elections, will be confronted with something new: optical scan electronic voting machines. They are up-to-date devices, but the voting process is seemingly a trifle more complicated than with the traditional lever style machines they are replacing. The lever type machine has been used, in one form or another, for over a century.  more »

(WestCop Summer Youth Program)

WestCop Creara Programa de verano juvenil al COC

Por Robert Kimmel

WestCop ( Programa de Oportunidades de Westchester), la organización que se hace cargo del programa de oportunidades en Tarrytown, tiene algunos planes ambiciosos para el COC (Centro de Oportunidades de la Comunidad).
La agencia comunitaria de Servicio Social ha realizado esfuerzos desde principios del mes de mayo que se han enfocado en la reparación del interior del edificio de la calle Wildey, de acuerdo con Gordon Albert, uno de los administradores del edificio.
Sin embargo, el WestCop se esta preparando para implementar una serie de nuevas actividades y programas.  more »

If any event is measured by the people it draws to a village, Tarrytown's traditional Street Fair is in the winner's category. There are still echoes on Main Street from the activities that took place last month. And it was declared a success by the Chamber of Commerce: Click on picture for video.

Funds earmarked by Albany legislators for some local projects are among the many items vetoed by Governor Patterson in his move to curtail so-called "pork spending." While the State 2010-11 budget includes no allocations for member-item spending, $193 million had previously been designated for these purposes and most of the money was to be paid out during the fiscal year.

While the Governor admitted that some of the funding items were worthwhile, he said New York State could not afford them given its financial status. He made good on the vetoes after the legislature did not set up a contingency budget that would go into effect if the federal government fails to release $1 billion in Medicaid funding to the state.  more »

Merchants and businesses located in Tarrytown’s downtown commercial district overwhelmingly support the filming of movies around their area . The results of a survey, “Filming in Tarrytown,” released last month, showed that 24 answered “Yes,” while only four replied “No,” to the question, “Do you think the village should allow movies filmed in the Main Street/Broadway vicinity?”  more »

WestCop (Westchester Community Opportunity Program), the organization that has taken over the Community Opportunity Center in Tarrytown, has some ambitious plans for the COC. The county-wide social service agency’s early efforts since May have been aimed at refurbishing part of the Wildey Street building’s interior, according to Gordon Albert, one of the facility’s two site administrators.

However, WestCop is gearing up now to implement a series of activities and programs.

“We have transferred a substantial amount of our resources into Tarrytown, both personnel and funding,” said O’Dean Mangum, a WestCop administrator.  more »

The Tappan Zee Bridge/I-287 Corridor Project team continues its slow march towards development of a plan to repair or replace the aging structure and add new transportation alternatives.  more »

A raffle to benefit The Neighborhood House in Tarrytown is being held until July 16 at Whimsies Incognito on Broadway. Whimsies is raffling decorative sailboats handmade by staff and friends. For $5 a ticket, the boats will be raffled off. Tickets can be purchased at Whimsies or The Neighborhood House. Drawing will be held at 8 p.m. on Third Friday. Winners do not have to be present to win. For more information, call (914) 631-3355.

Residents of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, deprived of their community park for more than a year due to construction, are expressing anger at the delays.

The RiverWalk, Scenic Hudson and Westchester County project that has closed sections of Pierson Park since August 2008 was supposed to be finished by now. First, it was sinkholes at the north end of the park that delayed the development. This time, it’s a manufacturer’s mistake that will require ripping up 18,000 paving stones. While many who have defied the fences that are supposed to keep them out look forward to the improvements and enjoy the new design for RiverWalk, they express frustration at the fence and construction zone that have separated them from a once vibrant community park.  more »

The Sleepy Hollow Board of Trustees is expected to vote July 6 on a resolution that would restrict the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in the village to only two-and-half months per year and severely limit the time of day they can be used.

The move comes as a result of resident complaints and “a very well prepared report from the Sleepy Hollow Environmental Advisory Council,” said Mayor Ken Wray at one of two public hearings held in June.  more »

For soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, nothing lifts their spirits more than receiving a package from home or words of encouragement.

Since 2002, Girl Scouts in the Hudson Valley region have shown their support for military personnel serving overseas by sending cookies, along with cards, letters and drawings. This year, the Girl Scouts Heart of the Hudson’s Operation Cookie Drop program resulted in more than 50,000 boxes of Thin Mints, Samoas and other brands being loaded onto U.S. Navy vehicles at the New York State National Guard Armory in Valhalla in mid-June.  more »

Thoughts of expensive airline tickets, busy airports, cramped rental cars and overpriced hotels are enough to make eager travelers disgruntled. With summer in full swing, a rebounding economy has many Americans, including those located in the historic river towns, seeking vacation alternatives.

A tight budget however doesn’t mean sacrificing good times and fun experiences. Many people are smartly looking past far-off destinations and investigating day trips and overnight trips within a few hours’ drive of the metropolitan area. And this is for good reason; the greater Hudson Valley, and the northeast, has much to offer.  more »

In Irvington, what matters is no longer what you read this summer but where. For some, it might be the back porch, or bed … or the Black Cat Cafe. For others, a picnic table in Matthiessen Park, the icehouse at Halsey Pond, or that secluded rock that juts out from the northern bank of the Reservoir.  more »

Nestled in the woods at the highest point of the Crest neighborhood in Tarrytown is a small oasis that 360 private owners get to share every summer. For more than 50 years, the Tarry Crest Swim and Tennis Club has provided a place for family fun in the pool and on the tennis courts. The club is a seasonal, member-owned, non-profit swim and tennis club that was incorporated for the benefit of its members and their families.  more »

The chief design professional for the $2.4 million renovation of Pierson Park revealed the latest plan at a public hearing at Tarrytown Village Hall, as progress on the behind-schedule RiverWalk registered another setback.

Tarrytown Village Administrator Michael Blau startled the public as he disclosed 18,000 paving stones comprising one-third of RiverWalk will have to be removed after it was discovered they are the wrong color.

“No one noticed the color difference when the gray pavers were installed. But when the rest of the 54,000 stones arrived and they were black, we knew we had a problem,” Blau said.  more »

Six community organizations are the beneficiaries of a total of almost $30,000 in grants approved by the Tarrytown Board of Trustees at its last meeting in mid-May. The total does not include $34,000 slated for the Community Opportunity Center, an amount matching the annual figure given to the COC in recent years. Those funds are being held until the Westchester Community Opportunity Program, (WestCOP), completes its takeover of the COC and formally requests the grant.

The highest grant among the others went to the Neighborhood House, $8,000 for senior services. The Historical Society of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, and the Wolf Pack Football and Cheerleading organization each got $5,000. TNT Baseball received $6,375, and the Tarrytown Music Hall got a $1,000 grant.

Situated on a small rise inside the Rockefeller State Park Preserve, not very far from its entrance, is a bunker like structure. It is a tank that holds 800,000 gallons of water, the reserve supply for Sleepy Hollow. That amount is considerably less than the 1.2 million gallons of water the village often consumes daily this time of the year and it is the major reason village officials want to build a bigger tank on the same property if permitted by the state.  more »

The Rotary Club of the Tarrytowns will have an additional $13,000 this year to add to its charitable endeavors, thanks to the organization’s third annual Duck Derby held at Patriot’s Park in April. That is the net amount the Rotary gained from the Derby through the “adoption” of the rubber duckees that participated in the Derby races.

Duck “adoptions” have risen each year since the inaugural Derby in 2008. The Rotary has seen its net increase from $7,600 the first year to $10,600 last year and the approximately $13,000 total this year. More than 1,300 Ducks were adopted by members of the community for the races this April.  more »

They provide an invaluable service to the Tarrytown area without costing taxpayers a dime.

The Tarrytown Volunteer Ambulance Corps has 61 volunteers who devote nights and weekends to respond to emergencies, and its work has not gone unnoticed.

Tarrytown was honored as the 2009 EMS Agency of the Year by the Westchester EMS Council during a ceremony at the council’s annual dinner May 19 at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown.  more »

Residents living within the towns and villages surrounding the EF International School of English are afforded the unique opportunity to become a host family this summer. With students of all ages coming from over 40 countries, the benefits realized by both students and families are far reaching.

Justin Britton, director of housing for EF, summed up the experience by saying, “You can meet the world in your own home.” And while welcoming a foreign student into your home is exciting on many levels, the primary concern is Education First (EF).  more »

As a transportation transformation spreads northward from New York City, about 50 bicycle enthusiasts and public officials recently met at Greenburgh Town Hall to talk strategy. Bicycling, squeezed off of roadways for years in Westchester County, has begun roaring back as a legitimate means of transportation. Led by installation hundreds of miles of new bikeways in New York City, Westchester County is targeted for new, green initiatives that will allow bicycles safe passage on the county roads.  more »

Additional public parking space in Tarrytown’s business district is closer to reality following an agreement late last month by the village to purchase a parcel of land behind the Mason’s building on Main Street. The agreement is the culmination of a three-year effort by the village to acquire the lot from the Mason’s Solomon’s Lodge.

“I’m delighted that we’ve concluded our negotiations and will now be able to provide a real boost to our businesses as well as a real benefit to our residents,” Mayor Drew Fixell said.

Fixell said the parking lot, which will be accessed off South Washington Street, across from an existing public lot, will provide from 23 to 26 spaces.  more »

With the help of some eager and environmentally conscious fourth and fifth graders from Washington Irving School, the first community garden in the Village of Sleepy Hollow was planted last month at 100 College Avenue.

“It’s happening and that’s great,” said Village Trustee Barbara Carr, who used her green thumbs to help the children. “Once we have one, people will be looking for other places to have another one. It’s going to grow.”  more »

Wednesday May 19, 2010 from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m.: Don't let the rain keep you from enjoying the amazing Irvington Farmers Market at the Main Street School. Lots of great vendors, delicious and healthy foods for the whole family, children's storytelling with Bonnie Rofe at 5:30, incredibly cool market T-shirts for sale... and music performed by Irvington's own, beloved Alycea Ench from 5 to 7 p.m.

In order to practice using a device that aides fireman to escape from a burning buildng, the members of the Sleepy Hollow Fire Department constructed what is known as a bail-out simulator. Fire Chief John Korzelius described the procedure in a demonstration for village trustees and others gathered behind the village' firehouse:

Area citizens concerned with Con Edison’s aggressive vegetation management (chain saw clearing) policies designed to protect their power lines are greeting, with cautious optimism, the announcement this month by New York State Public Service Commission Chairman Gary Brown that the PSC is opening a process to review those policies.

The PSC is inviting all interested parties to submit comments by June 16, with a second opportunity to comment on submitted comments by July 6. The Commission will then hold a series of public hearings across the state. At the end of the process, which will take several months at least, the PSC staff will make recommendations that the five commissioners will then accept, reject or amend.  more »